Top 3 Survival Skills for the At Home Learner

Top 3 Survival Skills for the Home Learner 

This summer, hundreds of parents found themselves teaching their children to swim on their own. Whether it be from youtube’s top choices, or following along on our SPLASH Facebook group, parents have taken on this challenge in stride. As the summer of DIY comes to an end, consider this your survival skills checklist.

  1. Treading Water 

When treading water, keep your body in an upright position with your entire head above the surface of the water; moving your arms and legs in a circular motion. Swimmers tread water where they are not tall enough to touch the floor comfortably such as the ocean or the deep end. If your swimmer can tread comfortably for one full minute, you’re in good shape.

Checklist: Test how long your swimmer can tread without touching the pool’s floor. Then try again after swimming a full lap!

  1. Elementary Backstroke

Although this is not an Olympic stroke, the Elementary Backstroke is one of the most important strokes for a swimmer to learn. As soon as swimmers can swim laps by themselves, it is time to practice safely swimming to shore, especially when tired. You see, there is a reason it’s taught in Level 2 of group lessons! Simply lay on your back and all together bring your hands up the sides of your body to your armpits & dip your heels below the surface of the pool. Finally, open your legs & arms wide like a starfish and snap back together to glide. The slow pace and minimal movement of this stroke gives your body ample time to relax and reduce heart rate while still making forward progress in the pool. Use this phrase to help you remember the order “Tickle- T- Snap. Glide” 

Checklist: Count how many strokes of Elm Backstroke it takes your swimmer to cross the pool. Then focus on long glides & shoot for a smaller number on the way back!

  1. Sidestroke 

The 3rd and final survival skill is one of my personal favorites. The Sidestroke is swam on your side, obviously  with your bottom arm straight up in streamline and top arm down resting on your leg. From this position kick your legs like a scissor: top leg forward and bottom leg back then quickly snap back together, meeting in the middle. As the legs are separating, the top/leading arms meet at the center of the chest & quickly shoot back up to the original position. Similar to the Elm Backstroke this stroke relies heavily on the glide to make forward progress. The most difficult part of this stroke is maintaining a comfortable body position floating on your side. After this is completed, the glides & snaps will fall into place 

Checklist: Have your swimmer practice laps of sidestroke while staring in the same direction at all times. This will train Sidestroke on both sides that comes in handy to face away from the sun!

Take these last few weeks of summer to master these survival skills and do your part to end childhood drowning. You never know when you’re going to need them. 

Nycole OlsenComment